Does The Pardoner’s Tale Satirize Today’s Church Controversies?

Does The Pardoner’s Tale Satirize Today’s Controversies?

Chaucer was a religious man living in the Middle Ages, a time when the Catholic Church was extremely corrupt. Clergymen, who were supposed to be esteemed and educated, were actually uninformed and naïve, and nuns and priests who swore celibacy were indeed engaging in sexual relations. Interestingly, the sale of indulgences by pardoners was one of the most controversial actions of the church. As a result, people were angry at what was one of the most powerful and influential institutions of its time, and they began to question the morality of the Catholic Church. In the “Pardoner’s Tale” Chaucer satirizes the dignity of the Catholic Church’s practices through the use of irony, in order to show the corruption of the church during the Middle Ages.

Irony is evident in the character, the Pardoner, himself and the fact that he is the one telling a story about the importance of morals. Pardoners are those who sell indulgences to people to make up for their sins, but indulgences themselves are considered unscrupulous. Therefore, the idea of this man helping someone get rid of their sins while the man himself is actually committing a sin is ironic. Furthermore, the Pardoner in this tale is actually guilty of six of the seven deadly sins. The first deadly sin that the Pardoner exhibits is greed, when he states, “For my exclusive purpose is to win and not at all to castigate their sin,” (Chaucer 243) implying that he pardons solely for the money and not to actually relieve people of their sins. He then discusses how he would never live in poverty by choice, demonstrating the sin of pride when he says, “What! Do you think, as long as I can preach and get their silver for the things I teach, that I will live in poverty, from choice?” (Chaucer 244).  The Pardoner continues to model the sin of sloth with his comment, “And never do an honest job of work, no, nor make baskets, like St. Paul, to gain a livelihood,” (Chaucer 244) which elaborates on the fact that he never does hard work. Carrying on with the descriptions of his sins, he admits to the sin of gluttony by stating, “I mean to have money, wool and cheese and wheat though it were given me by the poorest lad or poorest village widow,” (Chaucer 244). Finally he ends with the sin of lust when he confesses that he “keep[s] a jolly wench in every town!” (Chaucer 244). Interestingly the only one of the seven deadly sins that he fails to mention is envy.

The hypocrisy that is demonstrated by the Pardoner through his sermons against gluttony and greed represent the dishonesty that was apparent in the Catholic Church not only in the Middle Ages but also today. During the Middle Ages the priests and nuns taught the importance of virginity and swore abstinence, but in reality a number of them were involved in sexual relationships. Similarly to the Pardoner’s lies, these actions resulted in a sense of doubt amongst the people. In more recent years, the Catholic Church has lost the faith of its members as well.  One of the major instances that caused skepticism and mistrust in the church over the past decade was the series of child sexual abuses scandals that erupted in the early 2000s. An array of secret files that were discovered this past summer heightened the severity of these cases. According to the Associate Press of the New York Times, regarding one priest involved in the scandals, “The files include one case of a priest who later admitted to having sexual contact with more than 100 boys while serving in several Southern California parishes,”  (NY Times). The more people uncover details about the scandals, the more appalled people become with the Catholic Church.

Both of these ideas are tied together nicely by the irony surrounding the interpretation that the Pardoner may be a homosexual character. In the Prologue the Pardoner is described as having “hair as yellow as wax, hanging down smoothly like a hank of flax. In driblets fell his locks behind is head down to his shoulders where they overspread,” (Chaucer 21).  Shortly after this statement, he is further described as “a gelding, or a mare,” (Chaucer 21). Both of these descriptions imply feminine characteristics of the Pardoner, and suggest that perhaps he is homosexual, an identity that would have been highly frowned upon as a man of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. Interestingly, however, recently there has been a situation regarding the Pope addressing a gay priest in an understanding and almost encouraging manner, a major change from the previous pope who considered homosexuality “an intrinsic moral evil,” (Pope in Donadio). Pope Francis stated on his trip back from Brazil, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” (Pope Francis in Donadio).  This change from a traditional view of the Catholic Church is very intriguing; perhaps it is the Church trying to gain back some members it lost during its corrupted years, as homosexuality has become a more common and accepted idea amongst the population.

In conclusion, Chaucer depicts the Pardoner as in ironic and contradictory character in order to satirize the corruption of the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. He makes the seven deadly sins a central component in the life of the Pardoner, a man who is supposedly forgiving people of their sins. He also relates the mistrust that the members of the church had in the Middle Ages when the church had the most money and power, and in more recent times when the child sex abuse scandals occurred amongst the priests. Finally Chaucer depicts the Pardoner as a potentially gay member of the church, an idea that never would have been accepted in the Middle Ages but appears to have gained support in today’s society. Although there seem to be hints that the Church is regaining popularity, Chaucer was definitely accurate in criticizing the corruption of the church during his time and ours, as it still continues today.

 

 

 

"California: Religious Orders Release More Files on Sexual Abuse." The New York Times [New York] 31 July 2013: n. pag. Print.

Donadio, Rachel. "On Gay Priests, Pope Francis Asks, ‘Who Am I to Judge?’." The New York Times [New York]: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/world/europe/pope-francis-gay-priests.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.

Stevens-Arroyo, Anthony M. "Is the church corrupt?" The Washington Post 23 Apr. 2012: n. pag. Print.

Walker, Max, Jr. "Corruption of the Church in the Middle Ages." Ezine Articles. N.p., 12 Feb. 2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. <http://ezinearticles.com/?Corruption-of-the-Church-in-the-Middle-Ages&id=969734>.